Asahi Shinbun: Radioactive Car Emitting 279 Microsieverts/Hour

I don’t know why Asahi is putting out this lame article right now, as it sure looks like the information was there already back in June.

(What surprised me more about the article was that there were over 6,400 workers at the plant at the time of the earthquake/tsunami on March 11.)

All through the summer, as I wrote in my previous post on another radioactive car, there were rumors of cars inside the 20-kilometer “no-entry zone” being shipped outside the zone without any testing, either to the owners or to the used car dealers who sold the cars inside Japan. There is no standard for radiation for used cars sold inside Japan. Back in those days, people who raised the issue of radioactive cars and trucks out of Fukushima were often branded as “racist” discriminating against people in and from Fukushima in both the alternative media and in the MSM.

This blog already reported on the truck in Iwaki City that was emitting 1 millisieverts/hour (1,000 microsieverts/hour) radiation back in August.

TEPCO didn’t do a proper management of cars belonging to TEPCO employees parked inside Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant at the time of the accident and heavily contaminated with radiation. Some of the cars have been sold in the used car market, others causing problems with the neighbors where the cars are parked. Experts say “Highly radioactive cars should be treated in the same manner as the debris inside the plant compound”.

According to the public relations department at TEPCO, the company started the radiation inspection and decontamination at J-Village (located in Naraha-machi and Hirono-machi in Fukushima Prefecture) starting March 23, 12 days after the earthquake/tsunami. From that date, cars that exceeded a certain standard [which changed over time] weren’t allowed outside [the no-entry zone]. However, prior to that date, it was possible to bring the cars out of the nuke plant compound without any inspection. At the time of the earthquake/tsunami, there were 755 TEPCO employees and 5660 employees of affiliated companies. TEPCO didn’t keep track of the number of cars that were parked inside the plant compound at that time, or the number of cars that were taken outside the plant after the accident.

A garage mechanic in Fukushima Prefecture who says he was asked by a TEPCO employee to repair his car in June this year is angry. “279 microsieverts/hour radiation was measured near the windshield wiper. How can they allow a car like this to get ouside the plant?” he said, and showed [the reporter] a photograph he took when he measured the radiation. If one is exposed to that radiation for 12 minutes every day, the annual cumulative radiation exposure would exceed 20 millisieverts which is a standard that the national government uses to prompt residents to evacuate.

12 minutes every day? Realistically if the car was driven to the workplace (Fuku-I plant) and home (say, J-Village, which sits on the edge of the 20-kilometer radius), it is more like 1 hour per day. Instead of over 20 millisieverts, the worker would get 100 millisieverts in one year just by driving his car.